Pinecone is a fully managed vector database optimized for production speed and ease of use, while Weaviate is an open-source alternative offering more control and flexibility but requiring self-management. Pinecone excels for enterprise deployments needing 99.99% uptime, whereas Weaviate suits teams wanting customization and lower operational overhead.
Pinecone vs Weaviate — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Managed serverless vector database with advanced filtering and global infrastructure.
Open-source vector database with self-hosted and managed cloud options, emphasizing flexibility and developer control.
Deployment Model. Query Latency (p99). Starting Price (Monthly). Storage Limit (Free Tier). Hybrid Search Support. Setup Time to Production. SLA Uptime Guarantee
Choose Pinecone if you need ultra-low latency, enterprise SLA guarantees, and prefer outsourcing infrastructure management—ideal for production AI/search applications at scale. Choose Weaviate if you prioritize cost control, want to self-host, need customization flexibility, or prefer open-source solutions with community support.
Pinecone: $0 (free tier limited to 1M vectors) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 3 (pod, serverless, custom) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 0 (standalone database) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Pay-per-usage (storage + queries) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: $200-400 (managed pricing) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 5-10 minutes | Weaviate: 30-45 minutes (self-hosted)
Pinecone: No (SaaS only) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Boolean operators, ranges, sparse-dense hybrid | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 15-30 minutes | Weaviate: 30-60 minutes
Pinecone: Up to 20,000 dimensions | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: No (separate system) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: ~2,500 (closed-source) | Weaviate: 13,000+ stars
Pinecone: $70 (minimum pod + index) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 100M+ (unlimited with multi-pod) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 15-20 (account + API key setup) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Not public (proprietary) | Weaviate: ~4,000
Pinecone: ~$150-200 (pod + index + compute) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 100,000 vectors | Weaviate: Unlimited (self-hosted)
Pinecone: $10 + storage | Weaviate: $500-800 (managed)
Pinecone: Metadata filtering only | Weaviate: BM25 keyword + vector
Monthly Cost (1M vectors, 1K queries/day)
Pinecone: 5 billion (enterprise) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 25+ (LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Limited; JSON export only, subject to egress costs | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 3-5 minutes | Weaviate: 24-72 hours
Pinecone: $50 (Starter tier minimum) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 10B+ (unlimited) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Advanced (AND/OR/NOT) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 100,000 free vectors | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 99.95% | Weaviate: User-managed (no SLA)
Pinecone: $10 minimum | Weaviate: $0 (self-hosted)
Pinecone: 15-30 | Weaviate: 30+ minutes (self-hosted)
Pinecone: Proprietary (not open-source) | Weaviate: 9,200+
Pinecone: Limited (SaaS constraints) | Weaviate: Unlimited (open-source)
Pinecone: None | Weaviate: Unlimited (self-hosted)
Pinecone: $0 (free tier with limits) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: $84 (Pro plan, 5M vectors) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 1B+ (distributed) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Yes (REST + gRPC) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Yes (SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: $4.00 + query fees | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: SaaS only (managed) | Weaviate: Kubernetes, Docker, cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Pinecone: Yes (dense + BM25) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Proprietary SDK + REST | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: Yes, official integration | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 1M vectors | Weaviate: Unlimited (self-hosted)
Pinecone: 6+ languages (Python, Node.js, Go, Java, Rust, gRPC) | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA-ready, GDPR compliant | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: 99.99% | Weaviate: 99.9% (managed)
Pinecone: 10K dimensions | Weaviate: Unlimited
Pinecone: Yes (sparse-dense vectors) | Weaviate: Yes (native BM25)
Pinecone: 2-4 hours | Weaviate: 24-48 hours (self-hosted)
Pinecone: No | Weaviate: Yes (Business Source License 1.1)
Pinecone: Python, JavaScript, Go, Java, REST API | Weaviate: N/A
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Standalone cluster (Kubernetes, Docker, Cloud)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 3 methods (HNSW, flat, dynamic)
Average Query Latency (1M vectors, 384-dim)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 20+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Hugging Face)
Minimum Monthly Infrastructure Cost (Self-hosted Production)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Yes, with built-in tenant isolation
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 2 (GraphQL, REST)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 2 billion vectors
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 5-10 minutes (cloud)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Native BM25 + vector search
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: $0-5000+/month (SaaS)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 20+ LLM providers
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Limited (planning phase)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 3 (text, image, audio)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 100M+ (distributed)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 30-60 (with Docker)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Native multi-tenancy with data isolation
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Advanced GraphQL + WHERE clauses with boolean logic
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Text, image, audio, video
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Native Kubernetes-ready Helm charts
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Docker/Kubernetes cluster (4GB+ RAM minimum)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Supported but secondary to GraphQL API
Query Latency (1M vectors, 10 concurrent)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: $300 (SaaS) or $0 (self-hosted)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 2 (HNSW, Flat)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Yes (OpenAI, Cohere, HuggingFace, Azure)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 3 (GraphQL, REST, Python)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Unlimited (tested to 4096+)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: ~500 enterprise customers
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Text, image, audio via modules
Enterprise Features (RBAC/Multi-tenancy)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: HNSW, FLAT, IVF, PQ
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Vector-first (GraphQL, REST)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 100+ with optimization
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Yes (REST + GraphQL)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Complex WHERE clauses, nested conditions, cross-references
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: Full native support with tenant isolation
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: BSL 1.1 (Source-available, eventually open)
Pinecone: N/A | Weaviate: 99.5% guaranteed uptime
How to choose between Pinecone and Weaviate
Pinecone vs Weaviate — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Pinecone vs Weaviate. Contains 147 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Pinecone vs Weaviate — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Pinecone vs Weaviate.
Which is cheaper for a startup with 10M vectors?
Weaviate self-hosted is free (only infrastructure costs ~$50-200/month on AWS). Pinecone would cost ~$400-600/month ($0.04 × 10M vectors + usage fees). For cost-sensitive startups, Weaviate self-hosted wins significantly.
Can I switch from Pinecone to Weaviate later?
Yes, both support standard vector formats and JSON exports, but migration requires reindexing your data (typically 2-8 hours depending on volume). Weaviate's GraphQL API differs from Pinecone's REST API, so application code needs refactoring.
Which performs better for real-time recommendation systems?
Pinecone's 20-30ms p99 latency is optimal for sub-100ms recommendation serving. Weaviate's 50-100ms latency works for most use cases but may impact user experience if combined with other service calls. Pinecone is better for ultra-low-latency requirements.
Does Pinecone or Weaviate support multi-tenancy better?
Weaviate has native multi-tenancy with row-level security built-in (tenant isolation at storage level). Pinecone requires using namespaces or separate indexes, which adds operational complexity. Weaviate wins for multi-tenant SaaS platforms.
Pinecone has a shallower learning curve (GraphQL/REST API, 2-4 hours to first production query). Weaviate requires understanding Kubernetes (if self-hosted) or GraphQL querying, but extensive documentation reduces friction. For managed Weaviate, both are comparable.
How to Choose Between Pinecone and Weaviate
Deployment Model: Pinecone has Fully managed SaaS only, while Weaviate has Open-source with self-hosted & managed cloud options.
Query Latency (p99): Pinecone has ~20-30ms, while Weaviate has ~50-100ms.
Starting Price (Monthly): Pinecone has $0.04 per 1M vectors + $0.25/hour usage, while Weaviate has $0 (self-hosted) or $25+ (managed).
Storage Limit (Free Tier): Pinecone has 1M vectors (Pod index), while Weaviate has Unlimited (self-hosted).
Hybrid Search Support: Pinecone has Yes, with sparse-dense vectors, while Weaviate has Yes, native BM25 + vector search.
Setup Time to Production: Pinecone has ~2-4 hours, while Weaviate has ~1-2 days (self-hosted) or ~4 hours (managed).
SLA Uptime Guarantee: Pinecone has 99.99%, while Weaviate has 99.9% (managed tier).